Ted Cruz is the perfect example of how the Republicans and especially their Teahadist subset are regressive obstructionists who are the incapable of rational governance.

Digging in your heels and doing nothing while obstructing everything and then complaining that nothing is getting done is not a great long term political strategy.

But unfortunately until enough Americans get sickened by these do-nothings with their McCarthy-esque tactics and lies and hand these guys their walking papers this type of shiat will no doubt continue for the foreseeable future.

"I made promises to the people of Texas that I would come to Washington to shake up the status quo," he said in e-mailed answers to questions, in lieu of speaking. "That is what I intend to do, and it is what I have done in every way possible in the responsibilities that have been granted to me."

Being a smug obstructionist dick is not "shaking up the status quo." You haven't changed anything that matters--that is altering the status quo. You haven't rattled the existing power structure. You haven't swung the balance of power away from the center. You haven't even made things better for the people of Texas. All you've done is blocked the nomination of one person to the Cabinet, and in a way that was disgraceful over 50 years ago.

Don't pat yourself on the back just yet. I have a feeling the "status quo" is about to knock on your door, and your head.

jdmac:I still do not get liberals obsession with conservative's scrotums...

It wasn't liberals who dubbed members of the tea party "Teabaggers". They called themselves that first. We're just not letting 'em forget it, because it's a constant reminder of how out-of-touch and idiotic the Teabaggers are.

Xyphoid:I like the addition of the fact that he is questioning the dedication of two men, who both served in the armed forces, to the military of the United States, while not having done any service himself.

Peter von Nostrand:John Cornyn is embarrassing and a grandstanding blowhard. Unfortunately Cruz will quickly make him look stately and dignified. We may give Oklahoma a run for their money as the state with the two biggest putzes in the Senate

John Cornyn is embarrassing and a grandstanding blowhard. Unfortunately Cruz will quickly make him look stately and dignified. We may give Oklahoma a run for their money as the state with the two biggest putzes in the Senate

Yeah.. the dude who 'broke the story' can't be found, offered no proof, and disappeared promising details that never appeared. Only corroboration of his existence is some Breitbart writer dude who has NO REASON to make shiat up. He's probably a lot like threadshiatters like you.

Both Ted Cruz and those who have been publicly egging him on are doing yeoman service in pointing out to the rest of the country that the Tea Party stands for intransigence over governance, sloganeering over intellect, and self -service over country. He's going to be a great object lesson in what happens if you actually elect a Mourdock, Angle, or Akin and will help sway those races to the Democrats where they are competitive. It's a bitter pill at times, but strong medicine in the end.

But unlike the McCarthy hearings, the Teabagger Witchhunt will only target republicans they don't like and reinforce the public image of the Republican party as a regressive. In the words of the President, please proceed, Senator.

Ted Cruz, the Tea Party, and the Republicans need to heed the words of the man who brought the decline of McCarthy's witch hunt:

"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men."

badhatharry:Serious Black: badhatharry: Cruz is abusing his power of office and making people testify under oath about their political associations in front of Congress?

"When did you stop working for the North Koreans" is not a valid question to ask somebody who was a soldier in Vietnam and earned two Purple Hearts during that time. Especially when the person asking that question is a puny little wuss who didn't join the military.

He accused him of hiding who paid for a speech. "Who paid you?" is a valid question at a confirmation hearing. We could have done without the speculation but he it was clearly just speculation to make a point. It could have been Saudi Arabia, it could have been North Korea,....we don't know.

That is not the same as,"I have proof in my pocket that you worked for the North Koreans."

Sure, "Who paid you" would have been more valid. But let's be honest here; the "I'm just asking questions" defense is bullshiat. We all know that he wasn't trying to figure out if he worked for North Korea. The real answer is irrelevant because he didn't care about the answer. Teddy Boy directly challenged the patriotism of a guy that was injured in war TWICE while in service of the nation, who served his fellow military members as the deputy administrator of the VA, and who had two terms of experience on the Committee of Foriegn Relations by saying he worked for Kim Jong-il.

Making an enemy of the man who will soon be running the Pentagon is probably not the smart move for Texas, particularly in advance of what may be major cutbacks in military spending necessitated by sequestration.

"I was compelled to vote no on Senator Kerry's nomination because of his longstanding less-than-vigorous defense of U.S. national security issues," said Mr. Cruz, who also questioned the commitment of Mr. Kerry and Mr. Hagel to the armed forces, though both served in Vietnam. Mr. Cruz has no record of military service.

quatchi: Ted Cruz is the perfect example of how the Republicans and especially their Teahadist subset are regressive obstructionists who are the incapable of rational governance.

Digging in your heels and doing nothing while obstructing everything and then complaining that nothing is getting done is not a great long term political strategy.

But unfortunately until enough Americans get sickened by these do-nothings with their McCarthy-esque tactics and lies and hand these guys their walking papers this type of shiat will no doubt continue for the foreseeable future.

2016 could be a very good year. the republicans aren't going to have a strong candidate hence no shirttails and the tea party tools will have annoyed enough folks that getting control of the congress again should be doable. some of that depends on what congress does by 2014 and who the republicans run. regular right or wach job crazy right.

I'd just like to point out again this guy was kicked out of office 16 years ago for being too crazy. Among the crazy, he said Clinton wanted to destroy Waco because it would teach gun owners a "lesson" and after OKC, he was forwarded information which he immediately sent to the NRA, but only sent to the FBI two hours later.

Mrtraveler01:But what many forget to remember is that Cruz was born in Canada to a Cuban father and an American mother. Unless they change the law to where he would be elligible for president (which would be hilarious after all the birth certificate nonsense Obama put up with), he can't be president.

More to the point, his father fought on the Communist/Castro side in Cuba. If Ted Cruz had it his way, Ted Cruz would have never came to America.

As a non-American, your comment is exactly the kind of retarded derp that makes US politics so consistently fascinating. It's like going to the circus, if the circus was constantly railing against acting decently to your fellow human beings.

As dozens of clowns pour out of a tiny car they're shouting to the assembled crowd about how universal healthcare is evil, calling Obama a socialist and McCarthy a hero. And calling for war with Iran.

badhatharry:Cruz is abusing his power of office and making people testify under oath about their political associations in front of Congress?

"When did you stop working for the North Koreans" is not a valid question to ask somebody who was a soldier in Vietnam and earned two Purple Hearts during that time. Especially when the person asking that question is a puny little wuss who didn't join the military.

LordJiro:cabbyman: Most people forget that in the end McCarthy was right.

Fark has no font large enough to properly express the [citation needed] of that statement.

McCarthy was "right" in the sense that there were some Soviet agents in the US government at the time he was running around waving his list.

However, they weren't in the places he was looking, nor among the people he was looking at; and the way he was looking for them made their jobs much much easier by diverting attention away from them and onto people more visible. So he was correct in his assertions there were Soviet agents in the US government, in the same way it would be correct to say "There are terrorists in the US today." In fact, an argument could be made that by attracting attention away from the REAL Soviet spies by making so much noise, McCarthy actually aided the Reds more than the spies themselves.

Ted Cruz is the product of a belief in the right wing that anyone who pisses off libs must be OK. It doesn't matter that they don't have any actual ideas or policies of their own: the libs hate them, so they're with 'em.

Peter von Nostrand:Old enough to know better: Let me be the first to say a hearty fark YOU TEXAS! for inflicting this douchebag on the rest of us.

Sadly, you can probably thank Texas Dems for this. A number of them voted for him over Dewhurst in the Republican primaries (they had to have a run off) thinking they were trolling the Republican establishment

You can thank the Republicans attempt at gerrymandering which the courts did not like, resulting in a delay of the primary election, allowing Cruz to gain in the polls, defeating Dewhurst.

One with an allegation that (so far) has no evidence behind it, which has been repeatedly covered by the national press. One, a possible candidate for the highest office in the land, looked really stupid on national TV, which resulted in the press making jokes.

GAT_00:I'd just like to point out again this guy was kicked out of office 16 years ago for being too crazy. Among the crazy, he said Clinton wanted to destroy Waco because it would teach gun owners a "lesson" and after OKC, he was forwarded information which he immediately sent to the NRA, but only sent to the FBI two hours later.

16 years ago, I was 22. Old enough to pay attention.

Back then we, as a culture, eschewed most of our assholes in politics. This recent pageant of idiocy and spite is coming to a head, folks. These people are going to blow up in your face and you will finally fade into the slime under the rock you lived under.

The louder you are, the more people understand that you're not fit to govern anything. Hence the establishment Republicans rightly chastising Cruz's behavior. There are too many reasonable Republicans (and by that I mean voters) to keep putting up with this bullsh*t. If I googled right now I suspect I'd some other jerk talking about rape, duct-tape on nipples, voter disfranchisement and all the other things burped out of your sewer mouths.

Just go away, 'baggers. You won some ground, but how long did you think this charade was going to last? With nothing at all concrete to fortify your increasingly absurd assertions?